Hasta La Gadget!

Sometimes the most fascinating bits from a tradeshow come from those booth in between major manufacturers, and while we’re certainly not claiming that the Hi-Call is “the best product at IFA” as its spokesperson suggested to us with a smile, they’re nothing if not interesting. Hi-Fun’s gloves are Bluetooth headsets — or, well, handsets — with the speaker built into the thumb and the mic in the pinky, so you can talk by doing the traditional “call me” hand gesture.

Pairing is simple enough for anyone who’s done the process on a more traditional headset — the button is built into the top of the glove, along with a button to end the call. We took the gloves for a spin, as you can see in the video below, calling the rep’s very confused boss. In spite of turning up the handset volume as loud as possible, we had a lot of trouble actually hearing something on the showfloor — and the fellow on the other end seemed to be having similar issues, leading to quite probably the first time I’ve ever used the phrase “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you, I’m talking into a glove.”

Hi-Call will be out in the beginning of October, just in time for the cold weather. It’ll run you a not particularly cheap €49 for the pleasure of speaking into your pinky. Video evidence after the break.

Continue reading Hi-Fun’s call-receiving Bluetooth gloves, hands-in (video)

Filed under: Wearables

Hi-Fun’s call-receiving Bluetooth gloves, hands-in (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s going all out with its Galaxy Camera accessory lineup. In addition to the cases and Flip Covers we saw at Unpacked earlier this week, the company had some external flashes and professional-looking holsters on hand at its IFA booth, including a grip-mounted adjustable strobe, a ring light set and a sophisticated carrying rig, complete with hinged barn doors to block out unwanted glare. There were also hard covers in multiple dark colors, a handful of soft rubber-looking covers in light colors like aqua and lime green, along with an oversized wireless charging pad mock-up. In typical IFA fashion, booth attendants were unable to provide any information whatsoever, so it’s anyone’s guess what any of these gadgets cost, or if they’ll even make it to market. It’s also unclear whether or not any of the accessories are functional at this point, or simply mock-ups of add-ons under consideration. In the meantime, you can take a closer look in the gallery below.

Filed under: Cameras

Samsung Galaxy Camera accessories include flashes, wireless charging pad, barn doors (eyes-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we inch closer towards that October 26th release, the glut of announced Windows 8 devices continues to grow and today is no exception. At Acer’s press conference here at IFA 2012, the company unveiled its new all-in-one PC: the Aspire ZS600. At first glance, the AIO’s adjustable aluminum frame enclosure didn’t much strike us “contemporary” per the company’s claims, as it seemed to blend into the vast array of similar PCs showcased at the booth. And without any available keyboard dock to help us navigate that vibrant 23-inch full HD display, we were left to make use of the screen’s 10-point multi-touch which proved a tad frustrating, bordering on ineffectual — at least on this demo model. We also witnessed a considerable amount of glare in our brief time testing the product, though it’s worth noting we were surrounded by a multitude of showroom lighting.

Powering this multimedia-focused family AIO along is Intel’s 3rd generation chipsets (up to Core i7) joined by Dolby Home Theatre 4.1 for superior sound and AcerCloud for convenient personal media streaming. The company’s offering users the ability to configure it with up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 640, as well as a generous 2TB SATA hard disk. As far as optical options go, consumers can choose from a Blu-ray player or standard DVD drive. You’ll have to sit tight for this fella to head to market, but rest assured you should see it on retails shelves before year’s end — we hope. While you wait, why not check out our gallery below?

Mat Smith contributed to this report.

Filed under: Desktops

Acer Aspire ZS600 AIO announced at IFA 2012: 23-inch multi-touch Windows 8 PC (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Perhaps obscured by Huawei’s other new — and bigger –smartphone, the Ascend G330 also made its first appearance here in Berlin. For a smaller price tag (200 euros, around $250) you’ll be getting a slightly humbler 4-inch smartphone, with a 1GHz dual-core processor and up to 5.76 Mbps through its HSPA connection. The 800 x 480 TFT screen is noticeably jaggier than Huawei‘s other new devices, but for an entry-level model, we’ve seen plenty worse. It’s also aided by Android Ice Cream Sandwich, offering a more up-to-date mobile OS experience than existing starter smartphones. There’s a 5-megapixel camera on the back, while a 1,500mAh battery resides under the cover. The phone will land in Europe this November, in the single Black Matte option you’ll find in our gallery below.

Continue reading Huawei Ascend G330 appears at IFA, looking for smartphone first-timers (hands-on)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Huawei Ascend G330 appears at IFA, looking for smartphone first-timers (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here at IFA, the Galaxy Note II‘s glossy plastic build is practically fading under the ambush of cameras snapping away at Samsung’s booth, but clearly this phone is more than just a (super sized) pretty face, and it’s time to take a look at what’s under the hood. As mentioned in our hands-on, Samsung upgraded the original Note’s dual-core 1.4GHz chipset to a quad-core 1.6GHz Exynos processor. We put the device to the test today to see how those amped-up insides reflect in the Note II’s benchmark scores. As you’ll see below, Sammy’s latest handset fares significantly better than the original Note and the Galaxy S III.

Oh, what a difference a processor makes. Clearly the step up to a quad-core CPU is to thank for the large performance delta between the Note II and the last-gen Note, though the international version of the Galaxy S III, with a quad-core 1.4Ghz Exynos processor, also falls behind in Quadrant and other tests. The Note II also trumped its Samsung siblings on the browser-focused Vellamo benchmark, which hints at snappier performance on this phone. The phone’s graphics chops look pretty good, too, if the GL Benchmark score is any indication. Our testing got cut short before we could run SunSpider, but we’ll add that figure shortly.

Update: We’ve added SunSpider as well — the device clocked in at 1,330ms, which is a hair faster than the Galaxy S III.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Galaxy Note II gets early benchmark treatment at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 07:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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